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A Different Perspective | דבר אחר

“Echad Mi Yodea” (“Who Knows One?”) Dr. Sarah Diamant, Administrative Librarian for Special

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11 + 12 + 13 = 36 “Echad Mi Yodea” is a traditional The Telling cumulative-number song found in the Rabbi David Hoffman, Assistant Professor of Talmud and . Each verse circles back to In blessing Rabbinics and Scholar-in-Residence in the Department of the Oneness of God. are you blessed, Development, JTS and in multiplying The poem above is a play on verses 11, This Friday evening we will gather with family and friends. We will sit are you multiplied, 12, and 13 of the song: down to beautifully set tables, and each of us will open one of the most eleven stars become twelve tribes, Eleven are the stars of ’s dream. popular and well-known of Hebrew books—the Haggadah. The name of your dream of progeny Twelve are the tribes of Israel. the book comes from the Hebrew verb lehagid (“to tell”), and if we were to radiating Thirteen are the attributes of God. translate “haggadah” into English, it would be “the telling.” Not at the turning point, surprisingly, the core of the Haggadah is the section called maggid, a where the thirteen ways I wrote this poem for my teacher and word that also derives from the Hebrew root meaning “to tell.” Clearly of God friend Avraham Holtz, Simon H. Fabian these two forms of the verb lehagid communicate the centrality of the are One. Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Literature activity of “telling” on this night. But here things become less clear. at JTS. More especially, it was written in And you, honor of the birth of his 12th grandchild We might ask, about using the traditional text of the Haggadah on seder upholder of the world, around Passover time. He mentioned night: are hidden this event to me by quoting “Echad Mi • What is it that we are telling? in the sum Yodea”: just as 11 increases to 12, so • What is it that we will try to tell our family and friends who will of their completion, had his clan increased from 11 to 12 gather around our tables? concealed grandchildren. • What is it we will seek to express? in your answer I realized that in bringing the poem to to the first question. Now, don’t answer immediately. The go-to response is often “We come closure with 13 and adding the three together to retell from Egypt. We were once slaves, and God numbers together, I arrived at 36, a number which also has symbolic broke us free from the bondage of slavery and took our ancestors out of significance in Jewish tradition: the land of Egypt.” according to mystical lore, the Lamed Vav Tzadikim are 36 hidden righteous True. But if the Exodus from Egypt really is the focus of “the telling,” then people who are upholders of the world. it is strange that large sections from the book of Exodus are not used in This brought the poem full circle for me, the Haggadah. If we want to retell the Exodus, what better source could as I regard Avraham Holtz to be among we find than passages from the book of Exodus?! But the ancient Rabbis

this company. of the who fashioned the seder ritual did not choose a biblical text from the book of Exodus; instead, as their centerpiece for the evening learn.jtsa.edu they selected a passage from the book of Deuteronomy! To receive Torah from JTS by email, visit jtsa.edu/subscribe TORAH FROM JTS learn.jtsa.edu

harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor The Rabbis of antiquity chose Deuteronomy 26:5–8 as the textual cornerstone for the Haggadah: “My father was a wandering Aramean. . upon us. We cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the

.” I suggest that the ultimate meaning of the seder night and “the Lord heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our telling” are unlocked only when we understand this choice. The very oppression. The Lord freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by message of the seder depends on the moment when we read this. an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents. He brought us to this place and gave us this Land, a Ironically it was at this moment in the seders of my youth that land flowing with milk and honey. Wherefore I now bring the first everyone’s eyes began to glaze over. By that point, the high notes of fruits of the soil which You, O Lord, have given me. the seder have passed. Gone are the Four Questions and the Four Children. What remains is the seemingly impenetrable rabbinic riffing The farmer bringing his first fruits conjures up his people’s distant past. on a biblical passage that itself feels inaccessible. I can still see my The Hebrew meaning of the first line is uncertain, but it may very well grandfather pointing to his watch, gently indicating to me that the time refer to Jacob and his wanderings. He became powerful. But the to wrap up this part of the seder was upon us. His look said, “Speed Egyptians acted harshly against us. Here the farmer merges his identity things up. Let’s get to Grandma’s gefilte fish.” For my family, and I with that of his ancestors. They are one. We cried; it was our misery, not imagine for many others, it is with the rabbinic unpacking of “My father only theirs; God freed us and brought us to the Land of Israel. However, was a wandering Aramean . . .” that the entire seder loses steam and the key to unlocking the meaning of “the telling” is the last sentence of people begin to frantically skip pages. the declaration: “Wherefore I now bring the first fruits of the soil which You, O Lord, have given me." But it is here—at this very point—when Maimonides encourages us to add our own words and thoughts (Mishnah Torah, Laws of Leaven and This passage that the farmer declares is not a history lesson. It’s not Matzah 7:1). Ironically, it is with the passage “My father was a really about Egypt or the . It’s a text that is about the possibility wandering Aramean . . .” that we are asked to add our own voices to of recognizing the experience of God’s presence in one’s life. It is a text the reading of this biblical text. Why here? And again, why was this that models a certain paradigm of seeing the world, a world view that passage chosen as the foundation for the Haggadah? sees and feels the divine presence. By reciting this text, the farmer adopts this paradigm. He recounts the ways his ancestors recognized Deuteronomy describes the beginning of a new phase of Israel’s and appreciated God’s presence in their lives. Now the farmer is invited spiritual life. At long last the Israelites will be able to lay down to declare how he recognizes God’s bounty in a deeply personal way. foundations and build cities. They will be able to till the soil and take With his bounty placed before him, he is asked to speak about the responsibility for their own sustenance. God instructs that every year, blessings God has given him. from the first generation to have entered the Land with Joshua and to all subsequent generations, each farmer must take from the season’s Indeed, this is what we are asked “to tell” on the night of the seder. We first produce and bring it to the Temple in Jerusalem as an offering of invoke a specific story of our ancestors who experienced God’s intimacy gratitude. Part of the drama of this moment has the farmer give the and blessings. But this narrative is an invitation to speak about how God basket of his bounty to the priest, who sets it down in front of the altar. and God’s blessings are present in our lives. Exodus is a paradigm. The real task of “the telling” is to speak in an “I” voice. That’s why Then the farmer recites a set text (Deut. 26:5–10) that begins with the Maimonides says this is the moment for personal elaboration. In front of declaration “My father was a wandering Aramean.” It is this passage our children and friends, we are asked to identify and express gratitude that the Rabbis chose as the cornerstone of our seder. I quote it in full for God’s bounty in our lives. So put the aside for a moment here, without rabbinic interruptions. Pay attention to the use of during the seder, come out from behind the wall of all the words in them, pronouns in this passage: and speak in an “I” voice. “Wherefore I now bring the first fruits of the soil which You, O Lord, have given me.” My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he The publication and distribution of the JTS Holiday Commentary are made possible by a became a great and very populous nation. The Egyptians dealt generous grant from Rita Dee (z”l) and Harold Hassenfeld (z”l).